1. Technical Field
Embodiments described herein are related to designing an integrated circuit and managing power consumption in the design.
2. Description of the Related Art
The methodology for digital integrated circuit design has historically been timing-driven. The methodology generally includes the process of coding the logic that implements the desired operation for the circuit, synthesizing the coded logic into circuitry specified in a library of predefined circuits (called cells), physically arranging instances of the cells with respect to each other for fabrication on the integrated circuit (referred to as placing the cells), and connecting the cells with wiring by specifying the wiring layers for the integrated circuit (referred to as routing). The methodology may generally focus on optimizing the timing of the integrated circuit, so that the integrated circuit will operate at a specified clock frequency when fabricated.
More recently, optimization of power consumption has become an important factor in integrated circuit design. Integrated circuits are frequently being included in a variety of mobile devices, which are often operating on a limited power source such as a battery. Battery life is figure of merit for such devices, and thus integrated circuits which efficiently use power to perform their operations are desirable. Additionally, efficient devices may be more easily cooled and otherwise thermally managed in a system, even if battery life is not a concern (e.g. in a desktop computer that is plugged into an electrical outlet or other essentially unlimited power source).
Typically, efforts to improve power efficiency have been focused on designing efficient cell libraries, providing microarchitectural features such as clock gating, power gating, and multiple power states that provide different performance/power tradeoffs, etc. The methodology remains timing-driven.